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Taste of the Peace highlights local growers

Guests at Taste of the Peace Theresa Happychuk, (left to right) Odette Bourque, and Jules Gallant, dine on local fare at the Entrec Centre in Evergreen Park, Grande Prairie, Alberta. On Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2014, to kick-off the Growing the North Conference, about 20 local producers from the Peace Country shared their wares with guests at the ENTREC Centre, in Evergreen Park, Grande Prairie, Alberta. LAURA BOOTH/DAILY HERALD-TRIBUNE/QMI AGENCY

Over a dozen producers and local venders will showcase their products and hand out samples at a food and drink extravaganza.

The Taste of the Peace event will be held at the Stonebridge Hotel at 12102 100 St. Tuesday night. It is a partnership with Farm Credit Canada and Community Futures.

“It’s about getting together for an event, networking with individuals that you might not have seen for a while but also getting to meet the producer and find out where your food comes from. I think that’s a really valuable opportunity for sure,” said Holly Sorgen, executive director of Community Futures.

“We hear from individuals all the time, ‘I just want to know where my food is coming from, I want to know that it’s fresh, that it’s safe’ and more and more of our population I think is looking for that type of information in trying to get more knowledge about where their food is coming from,” she added.

The event is held in conjunction with the Growing the North conference, which occurs the following day. Attendees do not need to purchase a ticket for the convention as admission for Taste of the Peace is complementary. It will run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

One of the breweries in attendance will be Grain Bin Brewing Company from Grande Prairie. They have been there the last two years.

“We plan on bringing six or seven different types of beer for people to sample and try. I’ll be there with our other employee too and if anybody has questions about the process or what we’re trying to do with Grain Bin we are there to visit and hang out with everybody else,” said Dalen Landis, head brewer for Grain Bin Brewing.

Landis said he has worked with other vendors he met at Taste of the Peace collaborating on products. He said his company is different as they try to serve Grande Prairie first.

“Some of the things that we do that are unique to breweries in Alberta is we do things like our community series where we work local with not-for-profits and organizations in town. We design beers that they have input on, sell them and they get some of the proceeds from that,” he said.

“We also do things like our democracy series. We let people vote on the next beer that we do so the public has a good say in the beers that they drink,” he added.

The company is in the process of finding a new location and will give tours to the public once they have settled in.